Pats All Folks: Colts/Pats 2007-2008 Preview

by Trizz

It's that time of year again, arguably the second best rivalry in New England sports, its the Colts hosting the Pats in the game of the season.  Number 1 versus Number 2, Good versus Evil, Peyton versus Tom, whatever you want to call it this is the big deal.  What is at stake for these two teams, at the end of the game one of these teams will remain the only undefeated team in the league, this could determine homefield advantage in the playoffs and it is another chapter in the already great rivalry.

Things are different this time around, this time it is Tom with the great regular season numbers and Peyton defending a championship.  It's not just can the Patriots stop Harrison and Wayne but can the Colts stop Moss and Welker, while one can argue that the Patriots would of ran away with last year's AFC Championship if they had a Moss, Welker or Stallworth on their roster but that was last year.  That's why this game is so exciting (however not exciting enough to get the Sunday Night Timeslot, I mean seriously the Eagles??).  However, the Patriots do have the advantage for go-to guy Marvin Harrison is doubtful and the Patriots recently got back two key players from last season in Laurence Maroney and Richard Seymour.  Maroney is key, if the Patriots hope to stick to their usual gameplan of keeping Peyton off of the field and with Brady's 30 TD already on the season the Colts may apply the same strategy.

That would create a clash between the two 2nd year tailbacks, while Addai has had the heavier workload this season, Maroney was used sparingly coming off of his injury, perhaps to be spared for this game.  The Colts lead the league with 12 rushing TD and are 5th in the league with 140.3 rushing yards a game.  While they made light work of the Jaguars and Panthers, they are facing a Patriots defense that may be the best since the rivalry first started.   Star running backs have notably gotten decent numbers against the Pats, but soon when the scoreboard shows the Patriots up 2-3 touchdowns the rush is abandoned which accounts for the 87 yds/gm allowed by New England, mostly caused by the 179 yard/3 TD game against Miami a few weeks ago.

Another clash will be between two future hall of fame coaches, Tony Dungy and Bill Belichick.  Dungy has done his best to win at all costs even without Addai and Harrison at one point, while "Suge" Belichick has been making the league his tackle dummy.  Last week I personally predicted Belichick had too much respect for Joe Gibbs to run up the score...man was I wrong.  Belichick is going to need all the fake spikes and flea flickers in his arsenal because if there is one team that also doesn't stop playing until the game is over, it is the Colts.  After losing to the Colts in the AFC Championship Game despite leading 21-3 at halftime, Belichick and Co. has outscored opponents 66-7 at halftime in the past two games, and they STILL weren't convinced the game was over.  The score will not take away from the respect Belichick has for the Indianapolis Colts and when asked who is the better of the two teams, he said  "They're unbeaten and they're the Super Bowl champions," "Until someone beats them, they're the best team in the league."  The Patriots hope to change that Sunday November 4 @ 4:15 on CBS